Spider Plant (Large) Chlorophytum comosum

Even non gardeners can recognise this plant with its arching sprays of variegated leaves and long trails of miniature versions of itself. It is available in a plain green, and some very closely related plants are brightly patterned with yellow and pale green. Native to tropical and southern Africa, it’s a popular houseplant worldwide and is very happy in a vivarium situation. 

It can either be grown as an epiphyte in a planting pocket or in a soil filled cavity of a log, or in the substrate itself although it doesn’t like to be sitting in permanently wet soil. It develops white, fleshy roots that can store a certain amount of water, which is at least partly why it does so well in a hanging basket – it can even be grown outdoors in the UK in the summer.

Spider plants like bright light but don’t need to be in the brightest spot; dappled sunlight around the edges of the enclosure work just fine.

This plant is fine to use with herbivorous reptiles, and can be a source of environmental enrichment if planted above a tortoise table with the leaves allowed to trail down into the enclosure.